Have you joined the StartupNation community forums yet? It has been recently redesigned, with user-experience as our first priority. We are quite proud of the changes we’ve implemented.
StartupNation provides the premier small business community forums on the internet, and we’re going to tell you why you should join in.
1. Get answers to small business questions and solutions to problems
Join in on the conversation, and peruse more than 45 forum topics related to entrepreneurship and business. With nearly 12,000 discussion topics, and tens of thousands of replies to those discussions, almost every topic you may have questions about has been brought up, and if it hasn’t, simply start a new discussion.
Forum topics include: business planning, marketing, search engine optimization, freelancing, website-building, inspiration/motivation, funding and much more.
2. Make business connections
With more than 101,000 registered members, the StartupNation community provides a network of in-the-trenches entrepreneurs, small business owners, thought-leaders and dreamers who aspire to start their own venture. Receiving useful advice from people who have gone through similar trials and triumphs is priceless.
Use our forums to find a business partner, a mentor or someone to lean on for support during the various stages of launching and growing a business. Our private messaging tool is great for connecting one-on-one with other members.
Related: Sign up to receive the StartupNation newsletter!
3. Take advantage of ranking system and badges
We also have fun here! Community members have a chance to move up in standing based on his or her activity in the community. Users have a chance to work their way up in our competitive and interactive ranking system. All users start out at the Member level, followed by Bronze, Silver, Gold and Site Administrator rank. The higher your rank, the more features you can access.
Fun fact: moving from the Member rank to Bronze rank allows for link posting in discussions, private messaging and signatures. To see the criteria for each rank, and the various permissions, visit the community.
In addition to the ranking system, community users also earn badges and points based on contributions and actions. Badges are something to work toward, and are proudly displayed on your community profile. Badges are earned for multiple reasons, such as uploading a photo, connecting to your social media networks, reaching a certain number of comments and more.
4. Get social
In addition to our standard log-in, StartupNation offers sign in via social media. Use your social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google+ to access the community. The new community also allows users to seamlessly share content from StartupNation’s forums directly to their connected social media accounts. This includes Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
Reaction buttons are another social media-like touch you will find in the community. Use these reaction buttons to like posts, agree or disagree with fellow users, mark as insightful and more. And, guess what? Badges can be earned once a certain number of reactions have been reached, as well.
You’ll find social sharing options and reaction buttons at the bottom of each post.
5. Keep up with the conversations that interest you
Did we mention the bookmarking feature that allows users to follow discussions that intrigue them? Members can elect to be notified when that discussion has new activity. Additionally, each user is in control of his or her notification preferences. Community members may choose to be notified of certain actions via popup, email or both.
The tagging feature also allows users to keep up with the conversation. Personalize posts directed at specific users by mentioning them. Simply use the “@” key and then begin typing their username. Tagging allows for direct conversations in threads between multiple users, and it is a good way to let each other know their thoughts are being accounted for.
The only question now is, what are you waiting for? Join the StartupNation community forums today to share stories, connect with like-minded entrepreneurs and discover new ideas. It’s completely free!
